Khartoum, Asharq Al-Awsat- Sudanese Presidential Advisor Abdullah Ali Masar told Asharq al-Awsat that he believes his Government will eventually negotiate with the militant Justice and Equality Movement [JEM] in Darfur which attacked the Sudanese capital on May10. He said there were regional and international moves that exert pressure for the resumption of peace negotiations between the Government and the militant Darfur groups. “I believe the negotiations will take place but after a time, after tempers cool down and get over the tensions created by the subversive JEM operation,” he said.

Masar viewed governmental statements about isolating JEM from the Darfur peace process as having to do with the phase which immediately followed the assault and with the resultant wide condemnation and denunciation of the attack, which he described as “suicidal”. He said it was “natural for such statements to have been made”. Masar recalled that the Government had been in a state of continuous war with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for long years but used to negotiate with it from time to time until the last round of negotiations produced the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. “JEM under the leadership of Khalil Ibrahim is now finished militarily and leadership- and intelligence-wise, whereas those who prompted him into taking this step have succeeded”.

He described Ibrahim as an adventurer. He did not rule out the possibility that he would repeat his attack on the Sudanese capital. “The conflict he manages is part of the well-known conflict of the Islamists which erupted in Sudan in 1999 and which will not end,” he said. “Most of the JEM leaderships are from the People’s Congress Party headed by Dral-Turabi, and this proves Khalil’s movement has nothing to do with the Darfur case but is involved with the case of the conflict among the Islamists. Most of the elements of JEM are members of the opposition People’s Congress Party, and the Darfur case is merely a bridge for JEM to attain its other objectives.” “I am sure that if Khalil Ibrahim reaches power he will not be the ruler and that the rulers will be other persons,” he said.